Poetical Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt

by Thomas Wyatt

This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.

With a memoir.

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Noted English diplomat and poet Sir Thomas Wyatt or Thomas Wyat introduced the sonnet form into English literature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...

Reviews

[Ethan Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) had a formative influence on English Renaissance poetry, not least because of his introduction of the sonnet from Italy, which would go on to become something like the English language poetical form. His own writing is quite witty and at times powerfully moving. His career at court shows through in the sharpness of his satires:

I cannot crouch nor kneel to such a wrong;
To worship them like God on earth alone,
That are as wolves these sely* lambs among.

*Isolated, i.e. far from help (I think)

The vast majority of his work, however, is love poetry. Of this, his most typical mood is frenzy upon being rejected. Although some of the poetry in this volume sounds pretty much like a pop song lyric, which can get boring reading through an entire book:

My faithful lute
Alone shall hear me plain,*
For else all other suit
Is clean in vain.

For where I sue
Redress of all my grief;
Lo! they do most eschew
My heart's relief

Alas! my dear,
Have I deserved so?
That no help may appear
Of all my woe!

*complain

But some of his works are among my favorite poems in English. I definitely recommend Wyatt to anyone interested in English language poetry. I would just recommend getting a more recent edition than this public domain one edited by Charles Clarke. This is both because more recent scholarship has called into question the authorship of some of these poems (which might cut down on the less exciting bits) and because Wyatt's English is somewhere between Chaucer and Shakespeare--so the modern reader will likely want more editorial help interpreting some of his expressions and references (which may or may not include sneaky allusions to a certain Anne Boleyn).

Like as the fly doth seek the flame,
And afterward playeth in the fire,
Who findeth her woe, and seeketh her game,
Whose grief doth grow of her own desire.

Like as the spider doth draw her line,
As labour lost so is my suit;
The gain is hers, the loss is mine:
Of evil-sown seed such is the fruit.